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april fools day

Joy

Here are some simple, but brilliant, April Fools' Day pranks to pull on your friends

Here are 17 of the best responses.

via Marco Verch Professional Photographer

April 1 is April Fools' Day.

Nobody really knows why we celebrate April Fools' Day on the first day of April. Some people believe that it goes back all the way to the Roman Empire when they celebrated Hilaria, a festival of merriment where people dressed up in disguise.

Others say that it began in 1583 in France when the country switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent. Folks who were slow on the uptake and didn’t realize that the calendar had moved to January 1 became the butt of jokes and pranks.

Regardless, this is your reminder that on April 1, 2022, you should be prepared to prank some people or at least be aware that it’s April Fools' Day so you can avoid being the victim of someone else’s tomfoolery.

A Reddit user who goes by the name Never--Mind asked the online forum to share their favorite April Fools' Day pranks and they got a ton of great responses. “Since April Fools day is fast approaching, what have been some of your best April Fool pranks?” they asked.

The great thing is that most of them are really easy to pull off. When it comes to pranks, simple is usually best. Simple pranks are harder to detect and easier to accomplish without getting caught.

Here are 17 of the best responses to the r/AskReddit question.

1.

"There are 4 doors to our building and my co-worker put a sign on each one that says 'Door broken use other door' with an arrow pointing left." — Proud Turtle.

2.

"Piece of opaque tape over the laser on everyone's mouse. IT was pretty pissed, I need to take that one to the grave with me." — [deleted]

3.

"I work in Sales, and it seems like we always have a new guy around April. I like to write down on a post-it 'Please follow up with Mr. Baer at...' and then the number for the San Francisco zoo." — mismistu

4.

"Here's mine for this year. I hope it works. I recently purchased an espresso machine that leaves me with little hard pucks of compressed coffee grounds. I intend on covering them in frosting and leaving them on the break room table at work. Muhaha." — FuzzyManPeach

5.

"A greek radio station once said on the news that Greece would quit the euro and go back to their old currency (this was before the whole economy crisis there). The Greek stock market had a crazy and troubled morning until they finally got that it was only an April Fools Joke." — isablaubear

6.

"High school summer, my friend had a habit of getting up at 1 or 2 in the afternoon. I dropped by his place and his mom informed me that he was still sleeping and I should go wake him up. He's a really heavy sleeper so I decided to have a little fun. I moved his cell phone into the center of the floor, about 4 feet from his bed. I crawled under the bed and gave him a call. No response. Called again and I finally heard movement. Hand comes down, can't quite reach the phone. Foot comes down, another foot. He's got the phone sitting down on the edge of the bed.

A very groggy, '..hey, what's up man.. what are you up to?'
I pull off the best freddy kreuger voice I can muster, and yell out, "I'M UNDER THE BED" and grab his ankles with a vice grip. He jumps halfway across the room, nearly faceplants since I have his feet. He kicks my hands away and half scamper/crawls across the room until he realizes what happened. There was lots of swearing, he didn't think it was as funny as I did." — JMace

7.

"I'm a female kindergarten teacher. I wore a mustache all day long and pretended it wasn't there...even with the parents. Everyone got a kick out of it except for one student who cried because 'I looked scary.'" — HotTamalesYum

8.

"One April 1st I got up before my wife. I went to the kitchen to get some water. I opened the curtains to see that our neighbour's house, across the lane, was on fire. I ran to the bedroom and told my wife. She opened one eye and said, "Sure, sure. Ha ha." She got up seconds later when she could hear the fire trucks. Every April 1st, as a joke, I tell her the same thing." — windy496

9.

"It wasn't mine, but it was my mother's. I was six years old and one day she gave my daily cereal, which was cheerios, in milk. But today it was different. The milk was a teal blue, and luckily my six-year-old self seemed to notice. I asked 'Mommy what's wrong with the milk?' She said 'oh nothing a blue cow just made it.' And I was more excited than terrified and ate it all up. I told all the kids at school I ate a blue cow's milk and they were all jealous as fuuuuuck. it wasn't until later I realized it was dyed, and I felt like a fraud for telling all my friends I ate a blue cow." — randomfactgirl

10.

"Last year I posted on Craigslist under the personals section, listing wfm. Googled "selfie" and found some hot girl and used that on the post. Pretended I had just moved to town, and was looking for a good time around town, and someone who knew how to show a girl a good time. I posted my friend Victor's cell number and said the girl's name was Victoria and went by Vic. I specified at the end of the post that 'I'm kinda picky though, so send me a pic if you think you've got the goods, and you may get one back ;)'

Anyway, this was 1 am on 4/1. By 3 am his girlfriend was waking him up saying "someone's blowing up your phone" Vic -"hand it to me." She picks it up, only to see a dick pick that says "hey Vic, here's mine, send me yours." Oh and over 50 more dick shots. By the time he came into work his phone had died twice, and he had over 500 dic pictures sent to him. I deleted the post, told him it was me and we had a good laugh. Still, one of my favorite stories to tell, though I still work with him and I'm scared for this year." — SopwithStrutter

11.

"I replaced a picture of one of my friend's family members with a black and white picture of Boris Johnson." — RugbyTime

12.

"In 3rd grade, the teacher walks into the room with a pissed look. She says the tests from yesterday were horrible and starts telling everyone's super-low grades out loud. She goes on to give us all a piece of paper, saying we are having another test right now. She then proceeds to write the instructions on the board: April's Fool. Super scary moment for me. A girl cried." — Shroomsters

13.

"At the office, fill a bowl with trail mix, but remove all M&M's and replace with Skittles." — cgrant993

14.

"Not necessarily done on April's fool, more like random days throughout the year. One day for uni we went on a bus trip to go check out the cadavers at another uni. Our lecturer was going to meet us down there, so I took this opportunity to buy him a singing Disney Princess birthday card, I got everyone on the bus to sign it and told them all it was his birthday, which of course it wasn't but no one clicked that I was joking, I mean I had been in class with these people for 2 years and if they hadn't figured out I was a smartass, they're not fit and observant enough to be doctors. So I had convinced the class to sing him happy birthday once we got off the bus, which has started a new tradition. Randomly over time with we'd try top that. I once bought him a cake, streamers, banner, hats and party blowers and got my whole year level to barge into one of his classes and sing happy birthday. Everytime he posts a serious post on the Facebook Page for new students, I always post 'happy birthday scott.'" — scottydoeskno

15.

"A few years ago I bought 200 packets of mayonnaise and hid them all over my boyfriend at the time's room. I tucked them in the pockets of all his clothes, in his board games, behind his wall art- anywhere you could think of there was mayonnaise. He was still finding mayo a couple years later." — AimeeSaysGrowl

16.

"When I was fourteen I came inside and found my parents sitting solemn and serious in the living room. They had me sit down and told me that I was adopted. I was devastated to hear such a thing, and my dad told me how my birth parents had to send me to the United States because it was practically the end of the world for them. They couldn't get away, and so i was smuggled into the US and adopted. Now the time had come for me to know the truth, to inherit the items my birth parents had sent with me, to begin my journey to learn who I really was, and to take on my destiny. . . As the last son of Krypton." — [Deleted]

17.

"I told my friend I was pregnant as a prank and he offered to marry me and raise the baby together...it didn't feel like a prank anymore." — TheSilverLinings

This article originally appeared on 4.1.22

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comedy

Pop Culture

Michael Che played a hilarious April Fool's prank on Colin Jost and they couldn't keep it together

"That's the meanest thing you've ever done to me."

via Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Michael Che pulls a prank on Colin Jost.

Many great comedians have sat at the helm of the “Weekend Update” desk on “Saturday Night Live” over the show’s 48 seasons. Chevy Chase was known for his cool deadpan. Dennis Miller was the hip intellectual. Norm Macdonald will go down in history for his endless OJ jokes that eventually got him removed from the desk. Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon were a great double act that was a fun mix of high-brow and low-brow humor.

The current anchors, Michael Che and Colin Jost, will probably best be known for making fun of each other. Over the years, one of the duo’s signature bits has been writing jokes for each other and reading them live for the first time. It seems like every time they do that bit, Che finds a new way to embarrass Jost.

On Saturday, April 1, Che was at it again, this time with a brutal April Fool’s prank where he secretly asked the audience not to laugh at any of Jost’s jokes.

Che and Jost opened their segment with jokes about the indictment of former president Donald Trump, but the audience laughed much harder at Che than at Jost. A few minutes into the bit, Jost made a joke at his own expense and it received only a smattering of laughter.

"At this point, it feels like even pro-Trump people have moved on," Jost said, referring to the trial before a superimposed image of him wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat and a sign that read, "LET OUR BOY GO!" appeared on the screen.

The gag was met with an audience member screaming, “You stink!" The heckle was the last straw for Jost, who hung his head in his hand in shame. At that point, Che gave up the gag.

"I told them not to laugh at you for April Fools,'" Che told Jost, and the two couldn’t keep it together. "That's the meanest thing you've ever done to me. I'm covered in sweat,” Jost told Che through fits of laughter.

"I was truly like, 'Am I not mic'd?' And then I was like, 'Oh, I just suck," Jost joked.

The crowd broke out in applause for Jost, but he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of acknowledging them after they refused to laugh at his jokes. "No, no! Don't even dare! Don't you even dare try now."

When it was Jost’s turn to tell his next joke, a bit about Florida Ron DeSantis, Che said, “They’ll probably laugh at this next one.” And the audience did.

The episode was hosted by Abbot Elementary’s Quinta Brunson, who shined in “Traffic Altercation,” a sketch where she and Mikey Day played motorists screaming at each other in traffic. The crux of the bit was that they couldn’t hear what each other was saying, so they had to argue using hand signals.

This article originally appeared on 4.3.23

From Your Site Articles

saturday night live

On April Fool's Day, think before you joke about pregnancy.

Gwen Stefani announced on her Instagram this morning that she is expecting a baby.

It's a girl ❤️💕❤️gx
A photo posted by Gwen Stefani (@gwenstefani) on Apr 1, 2016 at 7:14am PDT

“It’s a girl” the pop star said, including a few heart emojis for good measure.

But as you probably already guessed, Stefani is not pregnant and this is an April Fools' joke.

On April Fools' Day, Stefani — and countless others — sometimes take to the social media account of their choice and attempt to convince their unsuspecting friends and relatives that they're pregnant.

"It's all in good fun," they quip. "It's no big deal."

But they're wrong.

It might seem like harmless fun, but these kinds of jokes can really sting for more people than you'd think.

According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, an estimated 10% to 25% of of pregnancies end in miscarriage. And women who've had a previous miscarriage have a slightly elevated risk of having another.

So whether you're aware or not, there is a strong likelihood that someone you know has or will suffer from pregnancy loss.

And that's not even accounting for the 10% of women (that's more than 6 million) between the ages of 15 and 44 who have had difficulty getting pregnant or carrying their baby to term. Or the men, whose own health issues make up about 33% of infertility struggles.

For couples with fertility issues, trying to conceive can be expensive, painful, and physically and emotionally exhausting.

Still laughing?

And all of this is compounded by the fact that we don't often talk about infertility or pregnancy loss.

Despite the fact that so many pregnancies end in miscarriage, the topic is still taboo, often discussed in hushed tones.

When writing about her own experience, actress Laura Benanti wrote in The Huffington Post:

"Well, if this is so common, then why do we only speak about it in whispers, if we speak about it at all?
If this is so common, why does it feel like the Voldemort of women’s issues?
The 'M' that must not be named."

Many families never discuss their loss or struggles with friends or families; instead they press on in private. Some individuals develop depression, anxiety, or even post-traumatic stress disorder from the experience.

April Fools' Day is a fun day for silly pranks and goofy jokes, but think twice about who or what you're making light of.

People who take offense to these "jokes" aren't trying to be killjoys or wet blankets. They're handling a complicated, painful experience that's still cloaked in shame and silence for far too many families.

Celebrate. Have fun and enjoy yourself. But if you're thinking about making a fake pregnancy post, think again.

It's just not funny.

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People were asked to make a list of the best 'harmless' pranks to play on your friends - Upworthy ›

Family

This body-positive campaign for men’s underwear is fantastic.

Aerie's men's underwear line has the Internet talking.

American Eagle's underwear brand, Aerie, released a campaign targeting men earlier this year.

And it's absolutely lovely.

All photos and GIFs via Aerie Man/YouTube.

The first thing you might notice about Aerie Man is its models: They're not what you'd typically see in a men's underwear line.

The brand — launched with the tagline, "the real you is sexy" — features models of all shapes, sizes, and colors. And just like its line of women's underwear, the photos and videos of Aerie Man models go through "absolutely no retouching."

The campaign is lighthearted and a bit tongue-in-cheek (pun intended).

There's Kelvin, who loves using his selfie stick.

And Devon, who enjoys boogying down in his living room.

Doug is a yogi, and proud of it.

And Matt ... well, Matt likes taking out the garbage.

Here's the catch, though: This Aerie Man ad may all be one big practical joke.

Yes, it's still only March, but ... there's evidence to suggest this might be less of a genuine campaign and more of an April Fools' Day joke.

After the ads launched, several media outlets — like this one, that one, and others — wrote about the line, praising its inclusiveness. And with good reason! There's been much to celebrate when it comes to diverse body types in the male modeling industry lately (take, for instance, Zack Miko, the world's first "brawny" — not to be confused with "plus-size" — model).

But The Huffington Post, however, spotted something a little fishy after it reached out to American Eagle regarding the Aerie Man story: The word "spoof" was in the file names for the images Aerie provided. Is Aerie Man trying to pull a fast one on all of us?

Hmm.

So we wanted to get to the bottom of it. Is this ad campaign real? Or is it an early April Fools' Day prank?

When asked about the authenticity of the campaign, American Eagle told Upworthy the message behind the line is, in fact, genuine:

"American Eagle Outfitters is letting guys know they are more than their messy man buns and deeper than six-pack abs. It's about loving yourself inside and out!"

That answer is great, of course ... but for a company which, by the way, has a history of pulling pranks, it still skirted answering the actual question. We could all be getting punk'd this very moment.

Update (April 1, 2016): American Eagle released a statement noting the campaign was at least in part an April Fools' prank but reaffirmed its policy for no-retouching on men’s underwear or swim lines in the spirit of body positivity.

Regardless of American Eagle's intent, though, the is-it-or-isn't-it buzz around the story says a lot about how we talk about men's bodies.

Men certainly have body issues too. And according to research, this may be a growing problem.

"Bodyimage dissatisfaction is more prevalent among womenthan men," a recent study out of Canada's University of Victoria found. "But men may be becoming more negativelyaffected and women less so."

"Our findings support theassertion that men are more commonly becoming thetargets of mass media images, resulting in more emphasison the muscular ideal."

About 10 million of the approximate 30 million Americans who are suffering from a clinically significant eating disorder are men, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. And men in the LGBTQ community seem to be disproportionately affected.

So why do we so often overlook these guys when discussing body positivity?

What does it say that Aerie Men's campaign could even be a joke — that we'd see a campaign celebrating diverse male bodies and assume that it's just some lighthearted fun, mocking the idea that men have body insecurities too? Would a brand ever launch a body positivity campaign directed at women as a "joke"?

Fortunately, there's reason to hope men's beauty and fashion industries are evolving.

Even if Aerie Man's campaign is the result of an April Fool's spoof, the praise the campaign has received is a clear indicator that things are moving in the right direction.

"I’m glad brands and companies are starting to see the need for male body diversity in fashion," Kelvin Davis — yep, the same Kelvin sporting the undies above — told BuzzFeed. “I think it’s long overdue, and what better way than to celebrate men in diverse sizes?”

Check out Davis and his model friends in Aerie Man's campaign video below:

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